Under the principle of 'One Country, Two Systems', Hong Kong became a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China on 1 July 1997. This arrangement promised a high degree of autonomy, including retaining its capitalist system, independent judiciary and rule of law, free trade and freedom of speech, but China is gradually pruning these rights and freedoms.

Biggest protest ever in Hong Kong, June 9, 2019 Hong Kong, June 10 (Reuters).– Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam vowed on Monday to push ahead with amendments to laws allowing suspects to be extradited to mainland China a day after the city’s biggest protest since its handover from British to Chinese rule in 1997.

Donald Trump praises 'eternal friendship' at state banquet.

The Queen: "I am confident our common values and shared interests will continue to unite us".

London, June 3.– US President Donald Trump said during his visit to London on Monday that the United States and Britain could soon negotiate a "big" trade deal.

"Big Trade Deal is possible once U.K. gets rid of the shackles. Already starting to talk!", Trump wrote on Twitter.

 Riga, June 3.– In an interview on Latvian Television this morning, President-elect Egils Levits said that Latvia must form good relations with Russia, but that these relations must primarily be formed in context with EU foreign policy.

He said that good relations must always be formed with neighbors, but added that this is a two-way street. ''Our side has this good will, we have always had and always will have,'' Levits said.

 How to manage the growing rivalry between USA and a rising China  

May 18.– Fighting over trade is not the half of it. The United States and China are contesting every domain, from semiconductors to submarines and from blockbuster films to lunar exploration. The two superpowers used to seek a win-win world. Today winning seems to involve the other lot’s defeat—a collapse that permanently subordinates China to the American order; or a humbled America that retreats from the western Pacific. It is a new kind of cold war that could leave no winners at all.

As our special report in this week’s issue explains, superpower relations have soured. America complains that China is cheating its way to the top by stealing technology, and that by muscling into the South China Sea and bullying democracies like Canada and Sweden it is becoming a threat to global peace. China is caught between the dream of regaining its rightful place in Asia and the fear that tired, jealous America will block its rise because it cannot accept its own decline.